African American English And African Americans Essay

Sonia Sanchez wrote in her collections of poems It’s A New Day, “We gon be some beautiful/ black/ women gon move like the queens we gon be full”(Sanchez,17). Like this example, Sanchez often writes in African American English. African American English (AAE) is commonly referred to as Ebonics, as well as black speech, black vernacular, and several other phrases. According to William Labov, “This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of English. But it is distinct in many ways, and it is more different from Standard English (SE) than any other dialect spoken in continental North America.” (Pullum, 39). African American English is in fact a form of Standard English (SE), and can be considered as the common dialect of African Americans. The historical phonological patterns of the dialect highlight the continuous intergenerational strength of the African American people.
African American English is not the only dialectal form of English. Since the 17th century spread of the language throughout the world, English has developed into several forms such as British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, etc. (Zeigler and Osonubi, 590). The difference between the aforementioned forms of English and AAE, is that AAE is not a national dialect. AAE is a precious product of a people who mastered a language under the inhumane conditions of slavery.
As a result of having to adopt a completely new and…

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